Saving lives, one pint at a time
It’s been a while. Prior to getting a tattoo back in 2006 I only donated blood a total of perhaps 5 times, so I thought it was high time I got back on the wagon, as it were. The last time my friend Nathan had tagged along, all happy and interested. I’d casually warned him not to eat anything until we’d finished giving blood, so he duly fainted on the bed halfway through. This is the same guy who believed me when I offered him a hot sliced pickled chili, grinning and calling it a gherkin, so he had absolutely no excuse to think I might be giving him sound advice.
It turns out that my iron levels were top-notch. My reward was a belly full of biscuits and a sticker which reads “Be nice to me, I gave blood today”. Along with volunteering I think there is a little something about the process that makes you feel good about yourself. It’s not an entirely selfless act. Whether or not a truly selfless act genuinely exists, I’m not sure; it’s a debate that can incorporate everything from mental disorders to genetic propagation.
My blood type is B Positive, which I take to read as general life advice.